Using WordPress Is a Good Long Term Strategy for Maintaining a Website
WordPress gives flexability, security and functionalty. It is useful for simple or complex websites for the novice developer. Have a go yourself at setting it up or get us to do it for you and apply some more complex settings so you can start adding your content, hassle free.
You Can Install WordPress Very Quickly Via Your cPanel Hosting Control Panel
1. You first need to go to Softaculous in cPanel.
If you don't have cPanel yet, you can order one of our hosting plans. The Hostmate 10 plan is enough to get you going.
There are 2 ways to access Softaculous:
A) From within cPanel. First login to cPanel then click the "WordPress Manager by Softaculous" in the left menu.
OR
B) Directly from our website account login area on the Services ➜ My Services ➜ Manage page.
2. That will load Softaculous auto installer. Then click the blue "Install" button.
3. Install options will appear. Enter your preferred options and click Install.
4. Once WordPress has successfully been installed, Return to WordPress Management page.
5. You can then login to the WordPress admin and start creating.
Find a Suitable 3rd Party Theme for Your Site
One of the first things to do is choose a theme. Both free and premium themes are available. Premium themes offer more functionality which can help save development time and costs. Most premium themes offer a cut down free version which are very suitable to use when combining with a website builder such as Elementor.
What Do We Recommend and Use
We recommend two free themes, Astra and Elementors Hello Elementor theme. Both are good, fast loading and specifically designed to work well with the Elementor Website Builder. Astra is also recommended if you are planning to install the Woocommerce shopping cart plugin. Astra theme is installed by default when installing WordPress using our Softaculous.
Astra theme also has some free page template layouts that can be installed from the WordPress admin. You can select templates specifically designed to work with the Elementor Website Builder.
The free version of Elementor Website Builder is a great plugin with a user friendly editor and a drag and drop interface. It provides many features in its free version but the paid Elementor Pro version really lets you take control of the design of your website without having to install other 3rd party plugins.
Free Themes
Popular free themes: 1. Astra 2. Hello Elementor 3. Generate Press 4. OceanWP 5. Kadence 6. Neve
Full list of popular free themes on wordpress.org
Premium Themes
List of quality Premium themes available on Envato.com ThemeForest
Another very popular premium theme and WordPress website builder is Divi theme.
The popular premium themes are more like extended content website builders than template layouts however most do offer prebuilt template layouts. They are worth the money for extended features and ongoing feature updates and bug and security fixes. However, free themes often do the job just fine depending on your needs. The popular free themes above are well maintained by their developers and work well with Elementor.
If You Wish to Change your Theme
You can change themes at anytime. In the WordPress admin go to Appearance ➜ Themes in the left menu, then click "Add New" at the top of page. You can either search for a theme, or select a free theme on that page or upload your choosen theme in which case click the "Upload Theme" button at top of page. Click the "Install" button for the theme, then click the theme "Activate" button.
Free Stock Photos
If you need images for your site check Pexels for a good range of free stock photos. If your budget permits, there are plenty of premium stock photo sites to choose from once you start searching Google.
The following sites offer many high quality free stock images to use on websites:
- https://www.pexels.com/
- https://pixabay.com/
- https://www.canva.com/photos/free/
- https://unsplash.com/
Change Some Settings After Installation of WordPress
After installation of WordPress you can change some WordPress settings to suit your needs. In the WordPress admin go to Settings in left menu.
- On the General page you can change the site language and timezone.
- On the Reading page you can set the home page to a static page you make instead of the blog as the home page.
- On the Discussion page it is recommeneded to disable all comments options if you are just building a standard website otherwise your site will get spammed with unwanted comments.
- On the Permalinks page select the Post name option and save.
- If you have Litespeed Cache plugin installed (recommended), on the Litespeed Cache page go to the Excludes tab and tick on Administrator and save. This will ensure you will see any changes you make to the website without it being cached.
Install the Elementor Website Builder
To help building web pages it is highly recommened you install the Elementor Page Builder plugin. This plugin makes it easy to add different functions and blocks of content to a web page, especially when using a free theme.
In the left menu, go to Plugins ➜ Add New, then type "Elementor" into the Search Plugins field. Once the plugin appears click "Install Now". Once installed click "Activate".
Start Building and Adding Content
You can start building webpages. To add a page go to Pages ➜ Add New, in the left menu. To edit your new page using Elementor click the "Edit with Elementor" button.
WordPress offers many features and settings. Explore the WordPress dashboard to get an understanding of each one. It is mostly intuitive and you will soon come to learn how each feature works. If you get stuck or need more info about anything, answers can quickly be found by Googling your questions. WordPress is very popular which means answers, suggestions and video tutorials can be found easily online. The WordPress and Elementor Page Builder documenation pages can also be helpful.
WordPress Setup & Prepping: Prefer to Save Time and Get It Done Correctly, Quickly?
If you would like more support we can do the WordPress Setup & Prepping for you, see our price below. This will save you time and get you to a point of adding content more quickly. Or if you prefer we design your whole website check our website design prices.
Install WordPress
WordPress Settings
Secure Site with SSL
Litespeed Cache Plugin
Wordfence Security plugin(free version)
Login Security
Yoast SEO plugin(free version)
Install Theme(free version of Astra Theme https://wpastra.com or your choice of theme)
Create Child Theme
Install Elementor Page Builder(free version, not Elementor Pro)
Minimise Resource Usage
Web Design & SEO not included
Order